Transistion City

All 3 of our littles are growing up right before our eyes...Easton's new school has been great for him, Dalton is suprising us with what he's picking up at his school, but perhaps it's our little miss who is going through the most changes right now.



Although after Disney, these big boys no longer sleep with a Cuddles.

(Dalton's Pull Up leaked on vacation one night and it got both of their Cuddles...Easton said, "I can sleep without one!" so they both did...and then we just had them continue when we were home. So big!)

And Easton has lost tooth #2...but he actually lost it. At school. :(


But back to Autumn...so I'd mentioned she quit nursing a couple of months ago now. That was a big change. Then, we'd been waiting till after we got back from Disney for a few other things...you may recall I didn't want her potty training before our trip. And we let her keep her pacifier through the trip as well. But now that we're back, she's been making these transitions and, well, she's just becoming such a little girl lately.

(She picked the outfit herself.)

When we first got back from Disney we started to make her pacifier less desirable. She wasn't ready to drop it cold turkey like the boys were. It had been only a sleeping thing for many months now (except Disney) so it was just making changes to the paci itself. The first day I poked a hole in it thinking the suction would change. It didn't. So the second day I made a cross cut in the tip...again, it didn't change it for her. But the third day I cut the teeniest tiniest bit off the tip and it was "broken". She didn't want it anymore. She was sad about it for a day or two but she did really well for the most part. She traded in her paci for a stuffed Snow White doll.

Well, going along with this, she started taking longer and longer to fall asleep for a nap. Some days she wouldn't fall asleep at all. Or some days she wouldn't fall asleep till right before it was time to go get Easton. So I started letting her have "quiet time" with Dalton instead of napping and again, she's been doing really well. All 3 of these S kids have given up naps on the earlier side (by 2 and a half). She had a few evenings where she might have been a bit cranky...but the boys went through that for a few days too until their bodies learned to adjust and sleep more in the nighttime hours.

Soooo...obviously she falls asleep much more quickly at night now without having had a nap. So we decided it was time to convert her crib to its toddler bed feature--which means we took the front off. She's been able to climb in and out of the crib for awhile, but she never did it during sleeping time hours so we weren't too nervous about it. However, because she could climb out, it was probably time to be done with the crib. We've never had this crib as a toddler bed before. Both boys switched right to a "big boy" twin size bed straight from the crib because another baby was always on the way to need the crib. Dalton actually still uses a so-he-won't-fall-out bed rail so I had to figure out something else to keep Autumn from falling on the floor. I rolled up a couple of baby blankets and stuck them under her fitted sheet to keep them in place and it's working really well! She's never fallen out of bed and she's never even gotten out of bed (during sleeping times) yet! We put her down and she goes right to sleep and she still calls for us in the morning--so far. During the day she gets on and off the bed while playing, but when she should be sleeping she stays put. Perfect!


Jason took the front off while the kids were taking a bath. When she came in to see it for the first time she said, "Look what my bed is doing!" :) She was very excited and ran to check it out.


Semi-big girl bed!


If all these transitions weren't enough, she's also done with daytime diapers. I wouldn't call her 100% day trained yet but she is doing phenomenally. If we're at home, usually we keep her bare-bummed. She sometimes forgets if she's wearing panties and pants. But with her bum bare, she knows just what to do. And I don't prompt her. I did that with the boys, asking them frequently "Do you need to go potty?" or maybe even having them make a trip to the bathroom if I noticed it had been awhile...but I've since learned that's not how I want to do it. Sure they "trained" easily and early(-ish for boys) but a lot of their early ability to stay dry was me staying on top of them, especially with Easton. Three kids in, I've decided to let Autumn completely listen to her body and it meant having to clean up a few more puddles early on but we'll see how it goes in the long run with this slightly different technique. Sometimes she'd go a bit, catch herself and then run to the potty to finish. I have her go potty right before we leave the house and right before bed but we still do that with both the boys as well. It's just good sense, am I right? :) So she's been wearing panties on most of our outings. She's spoken up quite a few times to tell me she needs to go potty or sometimes I'll take her preemptively because public accidents are so not my thing. For church on Sunday I put her in a diaper because her using the potty regularly only started last week. But she told her teacher she needed to go potty and even went at church!

Around the house she's often sporting just a shirt and some baby legs leg warmers so that her bum can stay bare.


Pez have been our potty training reward of choice through all the kids. M&Ms from time to time as well...but when you see this, you know an S kid is learning to use the potty:




She's just growing up so much. She's been going into her church class without tears, she was so excited the last time Gramoo babysat:

She's been such a Mama's girl it's a little different. I'm so proud of her, though and I'm sure Gramoo's loving it too!

And she's still just the girliest little thing...Mimi and PaPaw sent a "Holly Box" but in it was a little set with a crown for her hair, some clip-on earrings, and a fluffy boa:


She's been asking for earrings a lot...well, her sticker earrings and those clip-ons. Jason was fine with her getting her ears pierced at whatever age...as long as she was the one who decided she wanted them for herself...but the day the clip-ons arrived Jason said she could get her ears pierced! She doesn't yet understand that there will be a bit of pain involved, but she says she wants them. Real earrings "like Mommy's" that won't fall off! Jason says that even though she doesn't grasp 100% what she's getting into (like how it'll hurt), he has no doubt that it is something his little princess would end up wanting someday soon. Soooo.....
.
.
.
.
.


Not a great pic but the best one where you can see both of her ears:


Squeeeeeeee!!!! My girly girl is a big girl!